Then there's the menu. Is a signature item a classic? Or is it dated? And, more broadly, how does a restaurant stay relevant to changing tastes over time?

There's the matter of a ram wearing a sombrero that tips its hat as you walk in the door, but perhaps that's best left to a different rumination.

The stops that triggered our pondering -- and isn't that, alone, a sign of dessert greatness? -- came from a legendary Detroit restaurant and an upstart parked in the back of a bar (for now).

The Rattlesnake Club is known to anyone in Metro Detroit, arguably Michigan, with an interest in fine dining. Beautifully located along the Detroit River in Stroh's Place, The Rattlesnake opened in 1988 and lives among the city's elite eateries. For many, celebrating a birthday, anniversary, graduation or other special life moment means a night out at The Rattlesnake Club.

While the reputation is well earned, it's one the restaurant is shaking up. Small plates have been introduced in recent years as an alternative to large meals with large prices, and happy hours on Thursdays and Fridays are drawing a crowd. Changes are planned to the dining room, and even expected attire is less formal than maybe expected. Our Michigan's Best crew was dressed in work clothes for our visit, and marketing director Alexandria Franz said the attire would be appropriate for the dining room.

The Rattlesnake Club's guiding mission is very much in style. The restaurant uses locally sourced, seasonal food, and menus are inspired by Executive Chef Chris Franz walking through Detroit's Eastern Market to spy produce and check in with local farmers. The approach conjures loyalty in a kitchen staff of 10, some who've worked at The Rattlesnake Club for going on two decades.

The restaurant's long-standing commitment to quality dining may soon be rewarded with a prime location in Detroit's urban renewal. Interest is mounting in the city's riverfront real estate, both for residential development popping up nearby, and for recreational activities like nearby bike trails that are drawing increasing crowds. There's even talk of a water taxi connecting Downtown Detroit to Belle Isle with stops along the way, presumably at a place like The Rattlesnake Club with its outdoor seating, bar and increasingly accessible menu items.

John Gonzalez | gonzo@mlive.com

Which brings us to the dessert that brought us to The Rattlesnake Club. John "Gonzo" Gonzalez and chef Amy Sherman met with Chris Franz and Alexandria Franz (yes, they're married after meeting 17 years ago at the restaurant) to sample the offerings.

The Rattlesnake Club features two signature desserts. The first is a white chocolate ravioli with bittersweet chocolate mousse, almond creme and toasted almonds. The restaurant's baker, Mary Rucci, presses the dessert raviolis out by hand, 12 at a time, using a 2x6 ravioli pan. The confections are so well known at The Rattlesnake Club that Rucci was featured at restaurant's 25th anniversary where she made the desserts in the middle of the dining room. Customers, including former Red Wings players, order large to-go orders of the dessert ravioli, and to this day The Rattlesnake Club remains one of the few places anywhere to offer such an item.

The second signature dessert is called WAM! (and that's in all caps). It features white chocolate ice cream on a swirl of passion fruit and raspberry purees with a macadamia crunch. Another well-known dessert, the WAM! featured in Pure Michigan's magazine. Franz recalled an auto show attendee who would sneak out to The Rattlesnake to take a WAM! to go. Even though the ice cream would melt, they didn't mind. "They said they'd just eat it like soup," Franz said.

The third item we tried was a Michigan Apple Cruffin, which uses croissant dough shaped into a muffin with gala apples. The resulting cruffin (croissant+muffin=cruffin) is a tasty, attractive rose-shaped creation that's a newer addition to the menu (and may soon disappear as the apples fall out of season).

Our group, including MLive photographer Tanya Moutzalias, favored the WAM! of the three. Gonzo loved the unique mix of purees, and the dessert as a whole worked well.

The white chocolate ravioli was first introduced in the late 1980s as a cutting-edge, and much copied, dessert. Today, you won't see many other places serving dessert ravioli as new trends emerged. However, this dessert is a classic, much like the restaurant itself.

For our second Detroit stop, we whipsawed across the city to the back of a Midtown bar with a ram's head hanging over a fireplace that tips its sombrero to you as you walk in the door. If you visit the Third Street Bar you can get a drink, throw some skeeball, and order sweet and/or savory food from Dangerously Delicious Pies.

For the purposes of our search, we pictured dessert as a plated, sweet creation served in a restaurant at the end of the meal. So what do we make about slices of pie served in pie tins sitting around a hightop within ducking range of a dartboard?

Well, for starters, it's delicious. Arguably dangerously so. Kitchen manager Pat Vadnais treated us to the four sweet pies he had on the menu Tuesday, including: apple, salted caramel, a Motown brown with pecans, and a Baltimore Blast that Vadnais described as an "atomic cookie."

Michigan's Best is no stranger to Dangerously Delicious Pies. We visited here back in 2014 when the bar-based eatery won our Detroit poll for Michigan's Best pie. We were happy to return for another round of slices and an update on the business, which is exploding like that delicious Baltimore Blast.

The owners are close to opening a new commissary kitchen in River Rouge that will produce and distribute pies throughout the region, and a new storefront bakery in downtown Wyandotte (which, by the way, is seeing an explosion of cool new places including a whiskey bar and a wine bar along with DDP). If that's not enough, they're also planning a food truck to serve their goods.

But, back to our question, is it dessert? We'll argue yes because along with the sweet pies, DDP serves a full menu of savory pies for lunch, dinner and after-bar crowds. Third Street Bar may not have the fine table clothes of The Rattlesnake Clubs of the world, but it's easy to picture a hearty, pie-based two-course meal in a cool, casual setting.

Our group split on our favorite slices. Gonzo and Amy preferred the Baltimore Bomb, while Tanya and MLive entertainment writer Ed Pevos favored the salted caramel, which was compared favorably to a pancake with maple syrup. (I preferred the apple, but that's a personal preference for fruit pies.)